Dentists have long been using water jets for the purpose of flushing mouths during teeth cleaning. The use of water jets in the home for personal oral hygiene has been found to be of significant benefit in cleaning teeth and dislodging foreign matter and plaque in areas around the teeth. These areas around the teeth and gums are not easily accessed by brushing and flossing.
The several types of devices that have been proposed for the purpose of oral irrigation can be broadly categorized into those which are electrically-operated pump devices and those which are directly attachable to a pressurized water source such as a faucet. The electrically-operated device involves the use of a pulsating jet of water fed to a hand held syringe by a pump which is placed beside a bathroom sink. These devices may be unsafe if the pump component is submerged completely in water (in the event of an accident) since this may pose a shock hazard. Also these devices take up considerable space in a limited-spaced bathroom environment. The bulky nature of these units poses a problem in carrying these units while travelling. Still another drawback of these devices is that an on-off switch is located on the pump (and not on the hand held component) and therefore is incovenient to access while the jet tip is in the mouth.
Known devices which are attachable directly to a water source also have several disadvantages. Some of these devices do not have pulsating capabilities and those which do employ complex mechanisms. Most of the known devices lack the ability to control the rate of water aside from usual tap rotation. Some of the known devices lack the ability to connect to a majority of the different faucets and those which do are largely inconvenient or involve complex procedures. Lastly, most of these devices lack appropriate clamping and securing measures of devices to faucets to avoid slippage while in use.